FIJI
We had not originally planned to visit Fiji this year. However, we found that we were tiring of Tonga and still had over two months to wait until the weather would allow us to sail south to New Zealand. Thus, we weighed anchor and headed for Fiji – taking only 3 days from Vava’u to Savu Savu, Fiji, as we had wonderful weather for the passage.

Fiji is a fascinating country, and well worth visiting; we are certainly glad we did. Currently a military dictatorship, Fiji is ripe with restrictions and requirements for cruisers. Coming into Fiji was like crossing an imaginary line from the South Pacific to a conglomerate of Asia, Africa and the South Pacific. We arrived and cleared in without any difficulty and walked into SavuSavu, a town that could have been in India as easily as it could have been in Fiji. With a population of 50% Native Fijians, and about 48% Indians, it is not so hard to understand the recent political strife in this county – there have been four coups d’etats since 1987!

Native Fijians and Fijians of Indian descent coexist on two different levels, the personal and the political. At the personal level, relations seem cordial if a bit chilly: the groups don’t seem to mix much and marriage typically occurs within each of the two groups and not between. Politically, the native Fijians appear to be threatened by the Indians. One result, the government is gradually letting lapse the leases that Indians hold on agricultural land, leaving Indian farmers struggling to find another way to make a living.

Of course, there are also rivalries amongst native Fijian groups. Apparently, the various confederations of native Fijians struggle with each other for power and money at the level of the central government. One can only suspect that such rivalry could lead to scapegoating, with the Indians caught in the middle. The one sure thing to emerge from Fiji’s politics is that coups have become a popular way to change governments here. Civilian government is supposed to be forthcoming in the next year or so, but it’s durability will be suspect, at least to some of us visitors.

We were fascinated by the wares in the local market – Indian spices and vegetables and Fijian kava(Yagona) and taro. We could quite easily discern whom to greet with “Bula!” and whom to greet with “Namaste”. The Fijians of both groups are very open and welcoming. We were thrilled to be invited to visit a local Indian couple’s home to share their Sunday meal. Devout Hindus, they are vegetarian. We sampled homemade chutneys, curries, lentils, soup, yoghurt, and, of course, no eating utensils, we ate using only our hands and the freshly made puri bread. We were also invited to visit local Fijian homes, as they are very hospitable and consider it an honor to have guests. Homes are modest, with little furniture, but none the less convivial.

When you travel by boat within Fiji, you are required to go ashore to find the village chief “taranga ni koro” in order to perform “sevusevu”, the ritualized offering of dried Kava root, in order to formally ask permission from the chief to be allowed to anchor off his village. Once, we tried really hard to get to the village by finding our way through the mangroves embroidering the shoreline but could not actually get through and had to give up. Another time, we had to hike for 2.5 hours each way over a lava-strewn path up and down very steep hills to actually find the village. When we got there we were happy to accept the suspect cup of stagnant water to drink -- with not ill effects -- whilst we waited for the chief to be found so that we could perform our obligation.

Kava is a strange plant. When you go into local markets you can see heaps of this stuff – it looks like dried weeds or brush that you would throw away when clearing a yard. People like it so much that the newspapers frequently have articles about it being stolen, etc. Kava supposedly gives a mild “high” if enough is consumed. Well, it looks like grayish muddy water, is served via one coconut half bowl to everyone who is partaking. For us at least, all that happened was that it made our mouth and lips feel numb as if we had been given Novocain by the dentist. Yuck. Yet, it is an absolute requirement if cruising in the more remote areas of Fiji. Even the documents from the government tell us that we must indeed present this stuff. And of course, if offered, you must accept the drink and down it all in one gulp too.

Snorkeling here is world class. We dropped the anchor in several places where we had beautiful ‘aquariums’ of fish swimming around us. We especially enjoyed the Rainbow Reef in the SomoSomo Straight (off Taveuni Island). Here we were taken by a local guide (quite a character too) to see enormous underwater soft and hard corals of every description.

Cross cultural “humor”:
We were in a jewelry store (really a metal shack). Geoff saw some earrings that he really liked, and thought Sally should have. The Indian jeweler suggested that Sally try them on. Unfortunately, they were screw-type posts, and Sally could not fit the post into the pierced hole that she has in her earlobe. Sally commented that, while very nice earrings, they would not fit her ears as the hole in her ear was too small. The newlywed wife of the Indian jeweler cheerfully pulled Sally aside and exclaimed “ that if you can force the stick into the hole the first time, that the hole would thence get bigger and would not hurt again in the future.” She reiterated that “it is only the ‘first time’ that actually hurts, I promise that it would not be painful in subsequent attempts”. The Jeweler, Geoff and Sally all had to contain their guffaws at the young lady’s comments regarding hole size and elongation.

Every sailor’s conundrum:
We were fast asleep in SavuSavu bay when at 1:30am we were both awakened to the sound of someone yelling “HELP ME HELP ME!”. We quickly went on deck with a flashlight/torch and saw a local man in the water slashing around and yelling for help. Every sailor knows that the law of the sea is to help others in distress. Geoff quickly got into the dingy to go help the man – who by this time had swum over to our boat and was hanging off our anchor rode. By now we ascertained that he was not, in fact, drowning. We did not know if he was drunk or deranged or what, but he kept yelling “Help me, Help me.—they are going to kill me if I go ashore”. He clambered into the dingy with Geoff, whilst Sally kept the light shining on them both. Geoff quickly took the man to shore – a bit inland from where the people on shore were now screaming for him to come. The man got off the dingy and shortly jumped right back into the water and swam away. At this point, Geoff had done all he could, and came back to GRACE, at least confident that the man was not drowning. We later found out that the man had been caught later by the police and in fact was trying to escape detention for robbery. What a night!

In addition to the prevalent Fijian and Indian cultures, there are a few islands inhabited by displaced islanders from afar. We were the only visitors to Rabi Island, where Ocean Islanders (Banabas) were sent from their home island after it was commandeered for its phosphates in the 1930’s. We found our way ashore, located the local town chief and asked for permission to walk around, then took a ride in a rattletrap old truck which serves as a bus, (and which of course had a breakdown) to the town council for formal permission to be on the island. While we were waiting for the bus to be repaired, we watched two kids getting punished by the Banabas Police for maliciously obstructing the road with logs. These boys were put on public display in the center of town and had to stand for a very very long time with arms outstretched supporting heavy paddles. We’ll bet they learned their lesson. In places like Rabi, the offerings in the local stores are very meager. If you happen to love to eat canned corned beef, Fiji is for you.

On a side note, Dengue Fever is a common concern here. Each day, even though we doused ourselves with a superabundance of carcinogenic DEET insect spray coupled with the burning of anti mosquito coils, we both provided a daily buffet for all the mosquitoes within 5 miles of us. However, despite being intimate with so many of them, none of the mosquitoes who found us seemed to be carriers of the disease. Another Phew!

Medical Practice:
Sometimes you get to put little-used skills to work when cruising. We met some friends from a French boat – s/v Nosy Be. Catherine had a thumb that had been jammed in a winch and which was very swollen and blue. They were not sure that they really wanted to go to a local doctor. We felt comfortable enough with them as friends, that Sally suggested that she would take care of it. (We don’t have to worry about malpractice because: #1- Sally is not a doctor and #2. We were on a boat). Sally took a hypodermic needle and punctured Catherine’s thumb nail to let the fluid out and relieve the pressure. After anointing it with anti-bacterial ointment, and a friendly hug and kiss, by the next day, Catherine was happy, her thumb had drained and was flexible again. These odd little events have an interesting way of binding you to people. Whenever we have contact with Catherine and Bruno, we now feel as if they are family.
Fiji is such a wonderful place that we did many things. Some fun, some not so fun. We were stuck for 4 days in Mbua Bay with winds and seas too strong to even venture out on the dinghy. As much as we adore exploring coral and seeing the wonderful plant and animal world around the coral reefs, we do not enjoy finding coral with the keel of GRACE. Charts in Fiji are not very good and if visibility is poor, one can get into trouble. This happended to GRACE one day on the southwest coast of Vanua Levu. We found an uncharted bit of reef in bad visibility. Thankfully, the scratch was only a small cosmetic one. We are told by other cruisers that there are two types of cruisers in Fiji – those who have hit coral and those who "lie". GRACE is a good old girl, and just bounced off.

We spent quite a bit of good time on Yandua Island: hiking, doing sevu sevu with the chief and his family, being greeted by townspeople with kisses and “Bulas!”, snorkeling, and even having live vocal and guitar music performed by a Dutch friend when visiting GRACE. The Yasawa islands are more remote and breathtakingly beautiful. We had a wonderful time hopping down the chain of islands in GRACE and ending up in Musket Cove on Malolo Lailai Island. This was our last stop before heading towards Vuda Point marina and doing our last preparations for our trip to New Zealand. We met up with friends on s/v Nosy Be and s/v Bear and celebrated the Indian holiday of Diwali together, and got to see other friends on s/v Happy Monster, s/v Harlech, s/v Aurielle, s/v Pendulum, s/v Scraatch, s/v Swan, s/v Liberty, s/v Oz, s/v Nightcap, s/v Sabattical and s/v Glide. (Group photo by Bruno Calle via remote)
Our next adventure will be the trip down to New Zealand – often an arduous passage. Hopefully we will get there without any drama.